March 18, 2018

Senator Cantwell blames House Republicans for standing in
the way of clean energy policies and called on industry members to help educate
them.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the
Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, railed against House lawmakers
for “holding back the American economy” with what she characterized as
uninformed attitudes toward renewable energy during an event in Washington,
D.C.

“I guarantee you, in the Senate, there is bipartisan anger...at our House
colleagues for this stingy approach to tax extenders on renewable energy,” said
Cantwell, referring to a fight over whether to extend credits for
"orphan" energy technologies that were left out of the Republican tax
overhaul. The credits were ultimately saved in a budget
bill passed last month.

Cantwell asked attendees at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s
Renewable Energy Policy Forum to help educate House members, “who may not have
the same global view…on the success that we are [having].”

“We’re just in this very Draconian world over there that the tax bill is
everything, even though everybody knows it has many, many problems and needs to
be fixed,” she said of the House.

A tax reform bill proposed by House Republicans in November sought to slash tax
credits for wind by more than a third and eliminate the $7,500 federal credit
for electric-vehicle purchases. The credits were ultimately saved after the
bill was reconciled with the Senate version.

House members have been more generous on incentives for fossil fuels. On
Wednesday, Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) introduced a bill that would subsidize coal-fired power plants
with a tax credit. He cited the need for reliable baseload power in the event
of a cold snap, echoing arguments used by Energy Secretary Rick Perry last year
to justify a rule that would have subsidized coal and nuclear plants.

“The notion that the administration wanted to pick up, as I say, ‘the bat
phone’ and call the Energy Secretary and tell him to call FERC and mandate coal
was some of the most ridiculous policy I’ve ever seen,” said Cantwell of
the failed
DOE proposal.

Commissioner Robert Powelson, a Republican and Trump nominee
to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, reminded conference-goers on
Wednesday that support for clean energy doesn’t always fall along party lines.

“I’m very bullish on the prospects of where we see cleantech investment going
in this country, and I certainly will be a champion for it,” said Powelson.

Last month FERC commissioners unanimously approved a
rule that will open wholesale energy markets to energy storage on an equal
footing with generators and other grid resources -- a move that Powelson called
a “game-changer.”

The key to swaying politicians’ views on renewable energy is making it a
business issue, not a partisan one, says Heather Reams, the managing director
of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.

A conservative group, CRES is attempting to make inroads with GOP lawmakers on
clean energy policy by supporting Republican officials who sponsor clean energy
legislation. It currently endorses 24 members of the House.

“There’s been a lot of pressure on Republicans to vote like Democrats -- to
vote for overhauls and massive federal programs,” said Reams. “I get why
Republicans don’t get it, and I want to help them navigate that, to get to a
place where they can say, ‘I never thought about that.’”

Last year CRES released
an ad encouraging President Trump to stay in the Paris climate
agreement, which featured support from top executives and members of the White
House business advisory council.

Unlike most clean energy lobbying groups, CRES has a record of spending
millions of dollars exclusively on Republican candidates. That spending has
“accelerated our authenticity and believability of who we are,” said Reams.